"We always lie to strangers." Arkansas folklorist
Vance Randolph took this rather rude Ozarks tradition and made it into
the title of one of his best books on Ozarks culture. It seems a harsh
judgment, considering that the actual tradition involves not exactly lying,
but rather, seeing in every event and every question the opportunity to
tell a story. We would rather tell a story than eat.

It is a rule that facts can be at least slightly altered
in order to make a better story. In fact, it is so much a tradition of
Ozarks storytelling that children, when they suspect they are not being
told the truth and yet are hesitant to call someone a liar, will sometimes
say, "Now is that the truth, or are you just storyin?"

Another
storyteller, Mitch Jayne, was a member of the famous folk music group,
the Dillards, from Salem, Missouri. He writes a weekly column in Shannon
Countys newspaper, the Current Wave. His latest book is Homegrown
Stories and Homefried Lies: Words With The Bark On Them And Other Ozark
Oddments.

"I've written several books, but this is the first
one I've written for the fun of it," says Jayne. "I just have
all this Ozark funny stuff in my head, circling like the buzzard that
just ate 'wino' Fred and can't fly straight. See, fun is pretty much what
I had in mind when I wrote all this down. I've lived 70 years on this
planet, looking for excuses to laugh, and, by the time you're halfway
through this book, you'll know more about what made me laugh than anybody
from someplace besides Missouri would need to!"